Brain areas devoted to vision can take on other duties following loss of sight.

By Emily Sohn, 00:00 AM January 28, 2005

In some children who go blind, certain parts of the brain that normally control vision appear to switch jobs and focus instead on sound, a new study has found.

The human brain's visual cortex is found at the back of the brain (arrow).

NIH

The study, by researchers at the University of Montreal, involved 7 adults who could see and 12 adults who had lost their vision when they were children. Each participant sat in a room with 16 loudspeakers at different locations. The room was designed so that ...